"Tilli," Chief Lieta started, extending his hand out to call her closer. "This is Ria. Our new sky person."
"Welcome, Ria," Tilli said, giving me a short bow of respect. "Altua gives." All I could really pay attention to was how white her eyes were. It was completely different from those of other villagers I have seen before. They had black colored eyes, brown eyes even. What in the world is she?
"And we shall receive," the chief said, looking up at the sky with pride. "Please feed Ria and teach her some methods to prepare our food. If it is alright with you, she might want to know some stories about your father."
"We can definitely look into that. I promise to bring her back before midday," she said, almost chuckling to herself as she watched the chief walk away. She then turns to face me, staring deeply into my eyes for what seemed like hours before turning away to her hut.
"I’m sorry, I didn't mean to stare," I said, noticing my mistake. I didn't want her to think I looked at her like she was a beast. Even though not too long ago I had received the same stares, I don't want anyone else to experience that as well.
"It doesn't bother me," she said, turning to look at me and then nowhere in particular. "It's Altua's gift for half-bloods; it's a sign of beauty here," she said, motioning with her hand to the hut."Let's make you a meal. I doubt you recall the last meal you had."
I did remember what I had—the meal at the mansion before I got stuck here last night. Even though it was only a few hours before sunset when I arrived, I don't really know exactly how time works here, but hopefully I don't go back to my world 1000 years in the future.
"You’re a half-blood, like you said, right?" I said following her to the hut. "Does that mean that your father-"
"Is a sky person? Yes, he is like you, Ria. Well, when he was alive." She said, sitting down and handing me a small stool to sit on.
"Do you have any memories of him?" I said, almost falling to the ground, underestimating how low the stool was. But I seemed to steady myself before Tilli noticed. She had a selection of clay pots covered by fabric. She had dug her hand into one of them to reveal an orange tuber vegetable, almost like a sweet potato, and pulled out a small, crude knife from her clothing and started peeling.
"Not much; he was an old man by the time I was born. But my mother told me stories of how they met," she said, stopping her peeling when she had done about half of the tuber and handing it and the knife to me. "You can peel this like you saw me; when you're done, place the root inside this pot. She then dragged another pot in front of me and dug inside another pot she had beside her. I looked down at the pot placed in front of me to see that it was filled with water.
"I’m sorry for your loss," I said, peeling the tuber the best I could. But I'm not entirely the best at food preparation.
"Thank you. You know, it's not easy to be the daughter of a sky person. With the villagers staring, all the memories I had of my father being with me and my mother weren’t the happiest of memories. It is seen as a gift from Altua to bear the eyes I have, but there are villagers who don't see it as such."
"What do you mean? Aren't you given the same protections I have, like a sky person?" I was concerned for her wellbeing as I placed the tuber into the pot of water and was given another to peel.
"No, not exactly. The villagers know not to mess with Altua, as well as the sky people he gives us. Half-bloods, on the other hand, do not have Altua's protection from non-believers.
"Does that mean…" I stopped peeling and looked at her, wanting to know her truth.
"Yes, they had even planned to kill me before I was born."